This is all quite a surprise to me. I originally thought I would have to skip this month’s daring bakers challenge – again – because of my so-not-working internet connection. But what first appeared to be a never-ending story did find an end yesterday, as a France Telecom monsieur dropped by without warning and fixed my ligne télephonique.
I did certainly gave him one of the little perfect party cakes I had made earlier that day; how handy it is to be a daring baker.

The experiment:
The perfect party cake is made of:
- a vanilla cake
- filled with home-made strawberry confiture
- and frosted with a rich meringue buttercream (or more accurately, a meringue cream cheese frosting, as you’ll see below)

I started with the cake, which recipe is a keeper. The baking powder and salt are thoroughly combined with the flour. The butter and sugar are creamed together, then the eggs* are beaten in, one at a time. As usual, all the ingredients have to be at room temperature. You don’t want your cold egg to make your creamed butter mixture curdle, do you?
Then, I alternatively folded in the flour and the milk, aiming for a smooth batter.
I then baked at moderate temperature – 170°C – in 8cm cercles à pâtisserie for 25-30 minutes. The cakes had raised yet the top were slightly flat, which is perfect when making layer cakes.
Since I’m a vanilla kind of girl, I skipped on the lemon zest and threw a dash of my favourite natural vanilla extract into the batter. The finished cake was just perfect: the crimb was delicate yet tight, and had that wonderful aroma of freshly cut-open vanilla bean.

*I just noticed that the recipe called for egg whites, not whole eggs! That’s probably why my cake crumb turned out to have a golden hue.

As the cakes were into the oven, I decided to make my own confiture [jam]. I had some beautiful strawberries sitting on my counter and since one kg is too much for one girl, I thought it would be a great way to use them. Oh I know what you’re thinking: strawberries? In March? Well, they looked so temtping at the farmers’ market on Saturday morning, that I had to have them. Plus they’re grown in France and actually have flavour, which is pretty special for March strawberries.
In a small pan, I combined 200g of diced strawberries, 140g of caster sugar and the juice from half a lemon. Over medium heat, I brought the mixture to the boil and left it simmer for 20 minutes. When it had cooled down, I blitzed it in the food processor, then pour it into a small container and chilled overnight.
This was so good I had some – spread onto a thick slice of crusty levain baguette – for breakfast. Imagine ruby-red sleek jam, speckled with small seeds.

The next day, I made the frosting. Not the meringue buttercream, as the recipe called for, but a delicious – totally finger-licking – meringue cream cheese frosting. This, which probably is 2008 best food discovery, found its origin in my strong hate for anything buttercreamy.
But as a daring baker, I stuck as close as possible to the recipe, only substituting the butter by the same quantity of cream cheese.
Basically, I made a meringue italienne by wisking some boiling syrup – 112°C – into the whipped egg whites, and then mixed in the smooth cream cheese.
This frosting, white and creamy, was smooth and had that lovely cream cheese flavour, which – in my humble opinion – nicely complements the subtle sharpness of the strawberries.

Soooo…
This layer cake was a real winner. The combination of a fragrant vanilla cake, tangy yet sweet strawberry jam and creamy slightly salty frosting, actually made for a perfect party cake.

I like your spin on it.
Substituting the butter with cream cheese – what a nice way to complement the fresh berries! Terrific compromise. I also very much prefer your size for the cakes to the one suggested by the original.

I see you did your own version. It paid off, beautiful cake! I really wish I could taste it Fanny.
This was my first challenge and I follow the directions to the tee but next time I promise I will give it my own twist!

those strawberries look yummy (as do your mini cakes)! I also took that route, but did mine with chocolate layers instead.
I’m going to try your cream cheese frosting next time I make a cake, it sounds delicious!

this is the reason why I choose strawberry hoping they will cut the eccess of fat of the buttercream.
they didn’t and the buttercream wasn’t so fluffy as desidered.
Just a little bit hard to handle.
Your cream cheese is to another level.
and maybe it will my next step if I’ll decide to make again a cake like this.
As you my crumb was slightly brown near to a colourless crumb but I thought it depends on yolk-less batter

the cake looks absolutely beautiful!im sure it tastes even more beautiful!i just love your website. thank you for sharing your ideas and your recipes!even just looking at all your sweet things makes me excited!

This is my first time visiting your blog, but it definitely won’t be my last, I’m adding you to my list – it’s beautiful! Your pictures are so pretty! And you’re my age (I’m 23)! How fun it is whenever I discover food bloggers my own age :)! This is a beautiful cake, so far this is the best daring bakers pic I’ve seen :). I become a member next month! Finally, I gave in and joined :D.

Nice Meeting U!

Sophie

Yeah to daring bakers!

Nick said something sweet:
Friday 1 August 2008

How come this one doesn’t have an actual recipe? :-(

Raveena said something sweet:
Sunday 14 February 2010

ur cakes looks delicious

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Hi, I'm Fanny, the girl who writes foodbeam live from the French Riviera London.

I was born in 1985 and seem to love pâtisserie, acorns, milk chocolate, autumn, green tea, London, polaroids, and everything in between.

For years, I dreamt about becoming a pastry chef, and it's now actually happening; so grab yourself a cup of hot chocolate, and follow me through my adventures, from Pierre Hermé to Pascal Lac to the Capital Hotel, from Paris to Nice to London.